The Settling of Bertie Merian. By Naranjo. Imarga. (J. W.
Arrowsmith.)—A very curiously disjointed story this, distinctly clever, but lacking in cohesion in a quite unusual degree. Bertie Merian is in love with Sttncha De Saravia when the story opens, and the lovers meet after nearly four hundred pages of interlude at the end of the story. The hero is in evidence all the time, "settling," we suppose, though he is absolutely constant to his affection. Of the lady we hear but very little. But a whole posse of characters are marshalled before us, some of them very cleverly drawn. There is a "new woman," some quite terrible children, and a number of fashionable and unfashionable people. Marmaduke Merian, a clergyman of the very best modern type, is one of the finest figures, but we cannot help wishing that his end had been described in quieter fashion. The book is full of cleverness, which, with a little less ambition and a little more tact, would have been more effective.
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